


Incendio

by Brosequartz



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-14
Updated: 2016-10-15
Packaged: 2018-08-22 08:18:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8279182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brosequartz/pseuds/Brosequartz
Summary: Jace and Chandra have just begun their fourth year at Hogwarts. When they are forced to work together, they each realize the other may have some useful strengths... as insufferable as they may be.





	1. Jace

_ Gryffindor girls’ dormitory, 7:00am, September 2nd. _

Chandra groaned. The first day of school is great and all, but getting up for it is decidedly not. Her stomach groaned with her.  _ Then again _ , she thought, a breakfast prepared by the Hogwarts house-elves was a fair motivation. 

Descending the stairs into the common room, she saw Gideon Jura’s back climbing through the portrait hole. She jogged to catch up to him. “Gideon.” she said.

“Good morning,” he replied. They walked down the 6 flights of stairs to the great hall with relatively little conversation. They had done their over-the-summer catching up on the train the day before, and the previous night’s welcome-back party had left both of them  _ very  _ sleepy.

They slogged into the Great Hall, which was bustling. Friends who had missed each other at the feast were rushing around to other houses’ tables to greet one another. She sat down next to her fellow 4th year, Koth, who was waving to a friend of his as she returned to her own table. Gideon sat on her other side and immediately reached for a basket of toast. Chandra grabbed two slices and a fried egg from a warm platter and slapped them into a sandwich. As she poured herself some orange juice, she looked at Gideon’s plate again. He had piled it with three eggs and four slices of toast, and was reaching for the bacon platter. It was empty, however. Sitting across from them was Sarkhan Vol, who had clearly taken all of it. Gideon put the platter’s cover back and took a fourth egg. Chandra had finished her sandwich by the time he had poured himself coffee and orange juice and actually started eating. She turned to Koth.

“What do we have this year?”

He showed her his copy of the 4th years’ schedule. “Today we’ve got Charms, Potions, and then I have Ancient Runes, but I know you don’t take that...”

Chandra looked around for the teacher distributing schedules and went to get her own. Her third class of the day was Divination, followed by Herbology. She sat back down as Gideon was finishing his coffee.

“Ready for the day?” she asked. He stretched and grinned. Before he could answer, she added, “for your O.W.L. classes?” The look that dawned on his face gave her to know he had completely forgotten. She snickered. 

Koth got up to go to Charms. She joined him, punching Gideon on the shoulder as she left. “Good luck,” she laughed.

 

“Good morning, class!” squeaked Professor Flitwick. “I trust you all had an excellent summer! Behind me on the blackboard is our syllabus for the year. As you can see, we shall be beginning the year with a couple of exceedingly useful charms,  _ Aguamenti _ and  _ Incendio _ , which produce water and fire, respectively. 

“In front of each of you is a cup, and I want it filled with water by the time class ends! Let us begin.”

Chandra glanced around the classroom. They had Charms with the Ravenclaws this year. She didn’t know any of them well. Not that it really mattered. She set to work, saying “ _ Aguamenti! _ ” and pointing her wand at her cup repeatedly. It was hard to get more than a tiny dribble of water to come out at once, but it wasn’t like the spell was fundamentally difficult. Class crawled by, and Chandra, along with a few other students, managed to fill her cup with water. 

“Excellent work!” Professor Flitwick declared, “Next time we’ll learn Incendio, and after that, I have a delightful, partnered activity planned! It will be in your best interest to read chapter 13 of your textbook, and practice. Goodbye, class!” 

Chandra smiled. Flitwick’s demeanor was a good start to a day. But now they had Potions, which she never looked forward to. It wasn’t the subject she disliked, really, but the damp dungeons where it was taught. The whole class seemed to be migrating there in a flock, so Potions was probably with the Ravenclaws as well. 

Sure enough, they all arrived at the dungeon classroom together. 

Professor Slughorn seemed fairly cheerful. “Good morning, class,” he said, “I have our usual first day activity prepared: a potion to prepare and a prize to be awarded!”

The potion they had to brew was a therapeutic balm for aching muscles. Chandra followed the instructions in her textbook to the best of her ability, but her end product was average at best. The prize, a huge bag of Fizzing Whizbees, went to a Ravenclaw named Ral Zarek, who she recognized but had never spoken to before. On their way out of class, he handed one to one of the other Ravenclaws, a boy with laughably styled hair. She snickered a little as she walked behind them to the Great Hall for lunch.

 

Gideon was sitting about halfway down the table. Chandra went down the other side and sat across from him. “Have a good morning?” she smirked.

“Well they certainly made it clear that this is O.W.L. year. And that we’re going to have to work very hard, and that the O.W.L. exams are  _ extremely important. _ ” he looked pained. At least he had managed to get some meat on his plate this time. Chandra also helped herself to some lunch. 

They climbed the stairs together. At the fifth floor he turned away from the staircase. “History of Magic,” he said, looking a little bit sick.

“Surely Binns won’t lecture you forcefully,” she called as the stairs rotated towards North Tower, “I don’t think he’d be able to!” Gideon smiled weakly and turned away from her. 

 

Chandra put her books down at one of the squatter tables in the Divination classroom, and sat on one of the soft poufs surrounding it. All the fourth-year Divination students were here. It was a popular elective, so every seat was needed. A Slytherin with blue and red streaks in her hair and a Ravenclaw with a gold ribbon in hers sat down at the same table Chandra had. 

Professor Trelawney drifted to the front of the classroom and began, “My dears, today we begin to consider the stars. Human destiny is foretold…” Chanda almost immediately lost focus. She gazed around at her classmates. The Ravenclaw girl at her table, with the gold ribbon in her hair, was enraptured by the lesson and taking notes so fast Chandra couldn’t see her quill tip. The other girl who had sat down beside her, on the other hand, looked as interested in the lesson as Chandra, and was also gazing around the room. Their eyes met. The Slytherin girl grinned.

“Terrible place to have a lesson right after lunch, right?” she whispered. She was absolutely right-- the room was warm and dim, with the curtains closed and shawl-draped lamps lighting the place. To top it all off, there were the soft seats. Chandra hadn’t thought about it until just then, but it could be hard to stay awake in this class.

Trelawney then began passing out circular charts (had she missed the entire lecture?) and instructed them to fill in the position of the stars at the moment of their births. The gold-ribbon girl already had her textbook out and set straight to work. As Chandra and the other girl got out their own books, the Slytherin introduced herself.

“I’m Kiora.”

“I’m Chandra. I like your hair.”

“Thanks!” said Kiora, and ran her hand through it. What wasn’t streaked blue or red was jet black, and it was very shiny.

As they worked, Professor Trelawney wove her way around the classroom. 

“Ah,” she said as she stood behind Chandra and Kiora to look at their work, “born under the influence of Neptune, my dear? Just as I had supposed.” The edge of Kiora’s mouth twitched. Trelawney’s eyes turned to Chandra’s chart “And you, my dear, as I suspected, born under Mars. Good work, both of you.” she drifted off. Chandra looked at the girl with the gold ribbon, who didn’t seem to have noticed Trelawney had passed her by. 

At the end of the class, Trelawney assigned them an analysis of how the stars would affect their lives in the coming month. “You will need to reference the chart you made today, so if I did not come to your seat, please bring it to me now so I may make sure it is all correct.”

The girl with the ribbon went up to her, along with a few other people. As they packed up their things, Kiora grinned at Chandra.

“I can just copy my homework from the muggle magazine my sister sends me every month! What an assignment.” 

“Huh?” Chanda didn’t understand, but Kiora was laughing quietly.

“Some muggles believe in this kind of thing-- that you can tell the future from the stars. My sister sends me this magazine she gets, and they have a column about that in there.” She laughed again.

They descended the ladder together. “Where are you headed now?” Chandra asked.

“Transfiguration. Can’t wait to start my homework tonight.” she grimaced. 

Kiora turned into the Transfiguration classroom. Chandra could see some of the students already there were Ravenclaws.  _ So Herbology must be with the Hufflepuffs,  _ she thought. 

Sure enough, some Hufflepuffs were walking across the lawn to the greenhouses ahead of her when she went out through the front door.

Greenhouse 4. Inside, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors were putting on dragon-hide gloves, and the professor, Freyalise, was getting ready to explain the day’s activity. They were pollinating venomous tentaculae. Fun. Freyalise divided them into pairs and gave them all little brushes. Chandra’s partner was a girl named Nissa Revane, whom she knew, but not well. She would have liked to work with Koth, but he was on the other side of the greenhouse. 

“Hello, Chandra,” Nissa said, “have a good summer?”

“Yeah.” Chandra felt a little awkward around Nissa, so she tried to stay focused on the assignment.

The pollination required a lot of concentration, but Nissa was very good at it. She saved Chandra from being bitten on the arm at least 3 times, and failed once. And none of that was counting the bites on her hands, where the gloves protected her skin.

Rubbing her forearm as she left the greenhouse, she smiled sheepishly at Nissa. “Thanks for your help.”

“Of course!” Nissa replied. 

 

_ Ravenclaw common room, 7pm. _

__ Jace rubbed his temples. It had been a long day. Charms, Potions, Ancient Runes, and Transfiguration. All that wouldn’t have been so bad, if they didn’t have Astronomy, too, at 11 that night. 

“I can’t believe we have Astronomy on the first day,” he sighed.

“Yeah, it means we need to start our homework  _ now, _ ” Ral, his best friend, said pointedly. Jace looked over at his Transfiguration textbook and picked it up. The chairs right in front of the fireplace were taken, so they were sitting at one of the small tables scattered about the room. He and Ral took the same electives, so they did all of their homework together. They hadn’t been given any Charms or Potions homework, other than some reading and “practicing,” which he didn’t foresee himself doing, but Professor McGonagall had started them with a huge block of reading and an essay on it, and for Ancient Runes they had to write out several new runes a dozen times and do a translation with them. That sounded less stressful.

“Can we at least start with the runes, then?” Jace asked. Ral looked up from his parchment.

“That’s what I’m  _ doing,  _ idiot!” he snarled. Jace looked at Ral’s parchment and saw that he was indeed writing runes. Jace flushed and rolled out his own parchment. 

Jace hit his limit halfway through the first page of the chapter they had to read for Transfiguration. He glanced at his Runes homework, beautifully complete, and decided that was fine. He closed his textbook. Ral was doodling in the margin of his book, although he had made it to the second page. Jace looked at his watch. 10 pm. There was still quite a while before Astronomy, but not really long enough to  _ do  _ anything. He looked over at the chairs by the fireplace. The two girls occupying them were practicing  _ aguamenti.  _ He supposed there was that. 

“ _ Aguamenti, _ ” he whispered. A small squirt of water landed on Ral’s book. His doodle blurred.

“ _ Jace!”  _

“Was that important?”

“Ugh. Let’s just go for a walk. Take the long way to the Astronomy Tower.” Ral stood up. Technically, since it was after curfew, they were supposed to wait for a prefect to escort them to the tower at 10:50. But boredom was a strong motivator. They crept out into the hall. 

“Ral.”

“What?”

“I just realized. This is the first night the new 5th year prefects will be on duty. If any of them catch us they’d be thrilled to be able to give out a punishment.”

“Jace. They were on patrol last night, too. And they don’t put every prefect out every night. There’s probably only like, four of them?”

“Okay, okay. Where should we go?”

“How about the kitchens?”

“If we get caught in the basement, we  _ definitely _ won’t be able to say we were just on our way to Astronomy early.”

“ _ Damn it, Jace, we’re not going to get caught _ .” Ral whispered angrily. 

“Fine. Kitchens.”

They descended the stairs quietly. 

 

_ Gryffindor common room, 10:15pm _ .

Chandra sat on the floor in front of the fireplace, flicking her wand at coals at the bottom that had gone out, making them glow again. She had already read the chapter assigned by Professor Flitwick and was trying to practice the spell they were supposed to learn at their next lesson. As for her other homework, she always did the readings for Herbology the night before class, and Kiora was going to lend her her magazine so she could copy her Divination homework from that (she had found Kiora at the Slytherin table at dinner to ask about it). 

She flopped onto her back on the carpet. Gideon had been visibly stressed at dinner after a day of having the importance of OWLs drilled into him. She wondered if his first night on patrol as a prefect would go okay…

 

_ Hogwarts basement, 10:40pm. _

Jace and Ral had spent a good while getting down from Ravenclaw Tower undetected, but it had been worth the excitement of the house elves and the tea and sweets they had served them. They were on their way back upstairs, their pockets full of biscuits, when they saw a light around a corner ahead of them. Jace froze. The light rounded the corner, and there, holding it, was a prefect. A 5th year. Gryffindor. Jace felt the color drain from his face as he was caught in the light of the prefect’s torch. This was the worst possible person to catch them. They were really in for it. He looked over at Ral. Ral was gone. 

Jace blinked, leaned back, and looked down the hallway they had just passed. Ral waved at him from the end of it, and disappeared around a corner. Jace was about to yell after him when the prefect spoke.

“You there. Care to explain why you’re out after curfew?” He was holding the torch low, so it didn’t shine directly in Jace’s eyes. He was tall and muscular, with broad shoulders and a dark ponytail. Jace faltered.

“W-  _ I  _ was… taking a detour on my way to Astronomy. To get… some snacks…” He took a few of the biscuits out of his pockets. It was  _ almost  _ the truth. 

“You’re awfully far from the Astronomy Tower,” said the prefect. “But to be honest, I’m supposed to be walking you and the other Ravenclaws there in 10 minutes so, why don’t we just go, and I’ll take you at your word.”

Jace’s jaw dropped. He  _ wasn’t  _ going to get in trouble?

“I don’t have time to take you to the caretaker or the headmaster. I was just on my way upstairs. Let’s go, come on.” He beckoned to Jace, who fell in beside him as they began to ascend the stairs again.

“So what’s your name?” asked the prefect. Was he… going to try and make small talk?

“Jace… and you’re… the Gryffindor keeper.”

“Gideon.”

“Right.” 

Jace kept his head down as they walked. His face felt hot.

“Do you follow the house quidditch cup very closely?” Gideon asked.

Jace looked up. “Uh, well, I go to the matches.”

“We’re having the Gryffindor tryouts this Saturday at the quidditch pitch. You should come watch! I always love seeing all the new kids give it a shot.”

Jace wondered if quidditch tryouts were something a lot of people went to watch, or if Gideon was just… inviting him. Was it a closed event? 

“Sure, that sounds interesting,” he replied, “and I don’t really have anything else to do on Saturday, except maybe homework…”

Gideon laughed. “I’m going to be up to my ears in homework. What with OWLs this year, and becoming quidditch captain, and a prefect, I’m going to be very busy.” his face looked determined.  _ That’s a lot of responsibility _ , Jace thought. 

When they reached Ravenclaw Tower, the door to the common room swung open before them.

There stood the Ravenclaw 4th years. Ral and Jace met eyes. Ral’s widened. Jace’s narrowed.

Not noticing this, Gideon loudly said, “Alright, is everyone here? Got your books?” A few people nodded. “Then let’s go!” he turned and led the way up the hall, and the 4th years followed.

Falling in beside Ral, Jace hissed, “Why’d you leave me?”

“There was no point in us  _ both _ getting in trouble,” Ral whispered back.

“Well I didn’t  _ get _ in trouble, for your information.”

“Really?” Ral raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, really.”

Ral looked at Gideon, leading them up the stairs. “I guess he’s an easygoing guy?”

Jace watched Gideon’s broad back, fading in and out of shadow as they passed lamps on the walls. “I guess so.”

 

_ Great Hall, 8am. _

__ Gideon looked exhausted. He stared down at his plate, dark circles under his eyes.

“So was your first patrol rough?” asked Chandra, slapping together an egg sandwich, as usual, and biting into it.

“What makes you think it was rough?” He said, dragging the coffeepot towards himself. 

“Uh… well, you look… tired.”

Gideon took a sip from his mug. “I need to keep going. I’ve got to finish my homework today so I can be well rested for the tryouts on Saturday.” He started piling food onto his plate. The bacon platter was full, as Sarkhan wasn’t there. As Gideon’s quidditch teammate, he often ate with them, but he apparently didn’t have class first period on Thursdays, so he was still asleep. Gideon took six strips of bacon. Chandra watched as he shoveled them, two eggs, and three slices of toast into his mouth. It was incredible how much food her friend was capable of eating. He got up, and stumbled. Chandra leapt to her feet. He caught his balance. “I’m fine! See you at lunch!” He hurried away.

 

Gideon looked even worse at lunch. But he hadn’t slowed down. He bolted down his food and got out one of his textbooks. 

“Are you doing homework at  _ lunch? _ ” Chandra asked incredulously through a mouthful of her sandwich.

“I’ve got to finish all my homework  _ today. _ ”

“Gideon,” Chandra said, taking a big sip of juice, “homework is for Sundays.”

He paused, and looked at her. “You can’t always leave things until the last minute, Chandra.”

“It’s not the  _ last minute,  _ it’s like, a day or two before. And  _ you  _ can’t keep skipping out on  _ eating  _ and  _ sleeping _ .” She waved a bread roll in front of his face. He turned back to his work with a steeled expression. She ate the roll herself.

After lunch was another elective period; this time, Chandra had Care of Magical Creatures. She spotted Kiora walking across the grounds and jogged to catch up to her. 

“Now  _ this  _ is a good class to have right after lunch,” she said.

“Agreed,” said Kiora, reaching up to tie her hair into a ponytail.

There was no syllabus for Care of Magical Creatures, they just dove straight into the lesson. The teacher, Garruk, knew how to start the year on a fun note, and they spent the lesson observing some talking, ferret-like creatures called jarveys. This was amusing because the jarveys, although they could talk, were incapable of holding a conversation, and instead spouted constant streams of rude phrases. The animal Chandra and Kiora had been assigned to feed dead moles to knew several swear words, and they spent the whole lesson giggling.

 

They walked together to Defense Against the Dark Arts, which the Gryffindors and Slytherins had together. 

“Curses,” said Professor Teferi, putting his bag down on his desk, “how to resist them, and why using them,” he paused, “is dangerous. It seems obvious, but we will get into it in more detail next week. As for today, we are going to go over the difference between curses, hexes, and jinxes, and go over some examples of each.”

Jumping right into it on the first day. Typical for Teferi. Chandra exhaled slowly and got out her quill to take notes. At least this class had interesting subject matter.

The minutes whisked by, and before she knew it, class was over. Her brain felt rather full, but this was not reflected in the notes she had taken. She looked at them and sighed. She’d probably gotten all the vital stuff down.

“Want to hang a bit before dinner?” asked Kiora as they packed up, “We can uh, ‘do’ our Divination homework.” 

“Yeah, sure, sounds good.”

“I like to work outside, but I need to go to my room to get the magazine.”

“I need to go to mine to get my chart.”

“Okay. Let’s meet by the lake.” Kiora spun on her heel and walked towards the stairs to the dungeon.

As Chandra turned the other way, up the stairs to Gryffindor tower on the sixth floor, she wondered if living in the dungeon ever felt confining. Or damp.

 

_ Ravenclaw common room, 8pm. _

Jace and Ral had managed to get to the chairs by the fireplace before anyone else. They sat there, doing their homework for the next day.

Jace sighed. “We’re not doing homework tomorrow night, right?”

Ral gave him a withering look. “On a Friday night, Jace? Why the hell would we--”

“If you do, you’ll have to do it somewhere else,” a pale seventh year sitting on the couch facing them interrupted. They both stared at him. He didn’t look up from his book. “The ‘first weekend of the year’ party is in the common room, as always.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that!” said Jace, turning to Ral with a smile spreading across his face.

“Well we’re not doing homework tomorrow  _ anyway, _ ” said Ral, throwing a crumpled up ball of parchment at Jace’s head. It bounced off his forehead onto the floor. Jace’s smile slipped off his face. He picked up the ball with a scowl and threw it back at Ral. It sailed past him, missing his head by at least a foot. Ral snorted. “Let’s get back to work, Beleren.”

 

_ Gryffindor common room, 11pm. _

Chandra was sitting before the fire again, flicking at embers with her wand. Tomorrow they were going to learn  _ incendio  _ in class, but she thought she had a good handle on it already, from the readings and practicing. She looked over at Gideon. He was working in one of the armchairs beside the fire, a look of immense concentration on his face. She wondered if he would actually be able to finish his homework by the end of the night. OWL classes had a  _ lot _ of homework, didn’t they? She shuddered, turning back to the fireplace. That would be her next year. Well, not her in the first week, maybe. She would, of course, let things pile up until the last minute, as always. Gideon was right about that, though she wouldn’t admit to his face that she knew what he meant. She looked back over at him. He was now asleep, head leaning against the soft back of the armchair. The roll of parchment he had been writing on slipped to the floor with a swish. 

She crawled over and picked it up. It was a History of Magic composition. She snorted. It was stupid of him to have left  _ that  _ for last. She skimmed over it briefly, looking at his handwriting, with its big loops and broad strokes. Gideon stirred. She looked up quickly, color rising in her cheeks. But he had only shifted in the chair, his face now pressed against the wing. She looked back at the composition. It was done. Leave it to Gideon to fall asleep in his chair only  _ after  _ finishing his work. She saw his bag under the chair, and slipped the page into it before getting up to go to bed.

 

_ Great Hall, 8am. _

Gideon looked dead tired. Chandra figured he must have woken up again after she went to bed, because  _ she  _ felt fine. He still managed to eat an absolute mountain of food, downing an extra cup of coffee as well. But he bore a satisfied expression on his face.

“I can go to bed early tonight,” he said, “and be ready for the tryouts tomorrow morning! At ten.” he looked at her.

“I’m going! Don’t act like I’m not coming just because you’re holding them so early. I  _ do _ want to watch.”

“Good.” He smiled and stretched.

 

_ Charms classroom, 9am. _

Chandra rubbed her hands together. Today was the day they would learn  _ incendio. _

“Good morning, class!” squeaked Professor Flitwick. “Today we shall be learning  _ incendio, _ the fire charm! I’m sure you’re all familiar with it from the reading, but before I pass out candles to practice, let’s make sure everyone can do the wand motion correctly!”

A few minutes later, Chandra was raising her wand to a thick pillar candle that seemed to be scented, although she couldn’t figure out what the scent was supposed to be. “ _ Incendio,”  _ she said, holding her wand tip to the wick, and it lighted. She smiled and sat back. Looking across the room, she saw the Ravenclaw kid with the bad haircut trying and failing to light the tealight in front of him. She was about to snicker when he succeeded. She blew out her candle and cast  _ incendio  _ again.  _ Keep practicing. _

 

_ Ravenclaw boys’ dormitory, 6pm. _

Jace flopped down face-first onto his bed. “Week one, done!” he said to Ral, who somehow understood him through the pillow.

“It wasn’t even a whole week,” Ral replied. 

Jace turned his head so his cheek was against the pillow. “Still,” he said, “weekend.”

Ral laughed, taking off his tie. “Let’s get down to the Great Hall for some dinner before the party.”

Jace scrambled back up off the bed. “Yeah,” he said, “it’s no good to drink on an empty stomach.”

“Like you’re going to drink anything but butterbeer,” snorted Ral. Jace rolled his eyes. He wasn’t wrong. Drinking alcohol at their age was bad for the brain!

 

_ Ravenclaw common room, 9:45am. _

Jace opened his eyes to see the common room fireplace. His neck hurt terribly, and there was something on top of his head. It was Ral’s head. He must have fallen asleep with his head on Ral’s shoulder. He lifted his watch up to his face. 9:45. Damn! He would be late for the Gryffindor quidditch tryouts. But he couldn’t get up  _ now,  _ he would wake up Ral. Then again, Ral had had a fair bit to drink at the party. Maybe he could…

He gently held Ral’s head up with one hand as he extracted his head from between Ral’s head and shoulder. Wincing with the effort of not disturbing him, he leaned Ral’s head back against the couch they were sitting in front of. 

Ral’s head jerked and he made a strangled “Ngah!” noise. Jace flinched. But Ral was still sound asleep, only he had begun to snore. Jace stood up and hurried to his room to change.

 

_ Quidditch Pitch, 10:00am, Saturday. _

Chandra chewed a piece of toast as she found a seat in the stands. Sitting down, she looked across the grass to where Gideon (the new captain) and the group of quidditch team hopefuls were standing in the middle of the pitch. She wasn’t the only one in the stands-- a few other Gryffindors had come to watch, and some of them had brought friends. Koth was on the other side of the pitch with two Hufflepuffs, and a Ravenclaw she knew was friends with Sarkhan was also sitting in the stands. Another Ravenclaw, the one in her classes with the bad hair, was slouching in a seat on the far side of the pitch. She wondered why he would have come…

Sarkhan was a beater on the team and was helping with the tryouts. He and Gideon stood there, tall and muscular, before a group of nervous-looking first and second years, as well as some (slightly) less nervous-looking older students.

Gideon was for some reason wearing his match uniform instead of his practice one. It was clean and well-fitted. The dark red really suited him, and the captaincy did too. He looked right at home in front of all the students trying out, explaining something to them and holding out a quaffle. They all mounted their brooms, and took off. 

Gideon had them all just fly around the pitch for a bit, then some of them landed and stood with Sarkhan while the others, who must have been the ones trying out for chaser positions, went up to the hoops with Gideon. 

He gave them the quaffle and had them take turns shooting goals. Some of them did well, but some of them sent the quaffle sailing past the hoops entirely.  _ Then  _ he had them take turns shooting goals with him goalkeeping. Now none of them were making any goals at all. Chandra glanced over at Sarkhan, and saw him sigh. He bent over to open the ball case, and directed the remaining tryouts to get into the air. Chandra looked back at Gideon. He was smiling broadly, looking at one of the tryouts, who was whooping with excitement. He must have scored a goal. The chasers continued, with everyone looking a bit more hopeful. Sarkhan’s group were batting a bludger around now, and he was  _ not  _ taking it easy on them. One second year nearly fell off his broom dodging the bludger after Sarkhan hit it toward him with what appeared to be all his strength. Chandra winced, and looked back up at Gideon. He and the others were coming down now. The look on his face was satisfied, and he waved the younger ones off, turning to watch the beater tryouts. He was breathing heavily, and had gotten pretty sweaty. Chandra watched him undo his ponytail, run his hands through his hair a few times, then do it back up again. 

The beaters were landing now. The boy who had almost fallen off his broom looked like he was about to cry, and they all had heaving chests, including Sarkhan, whose ponytail was coming undone. Gideon said something brief to them and sent them off. 

Chandra got up to approach Gideon and Sarkhan as they spoke. Sarkhan’s Ravenclaw friend was making her way to them as well, from the other side of the pitch. Chandra got to them first, and greeted them.

“How did it go?” 

“Hold on just a minute, Chandra, I want to decide while it’s fresh in my mind.”

“Didn’t you take notes or anything?” Sarkhan’s friend asked, appearing beside him. The look on Gideon’s face gave away that he hadn’t even thought of that.

“That… would have been a good idea.” he said. 

 

_ Charms classroom, 9am. _

“All right, class!” chirped professor Flitwick, “Today we’re going to do a fun little activity. You’ll split up into pairs, and in each pair one person will pick  _ Aguamenti _ , and the other will pick  _ Incendio _ . I’ll give each pair some fuel, and you will compete with your partner to keep it lit or quenched!”

Jace would normally feel embarrassed on behalf of a teacher trying to make their class “fun” with a thing like this, but Flitwick was just so  _ genuine  _ he couldn’t feel disdain towards the tiny man.

“Now it’s time to choose partners!” Flitwick continued. Jace looked over at Ral, and they locked eyes. “Now, I want each Ravenclaw to pair up with a Gryffindor, no pairing with someone in your own house!” Ral broke eye contact with Jace to roll his eyes. Jace looked away to scan the classroom. His eyes met those of the Gryffindor girl with flaming orange hair. She grinned and waved him over.

He sat down tentatively in the seat her dark-skinned friend had vacated. “Hey, I’m Jace,” he said.

“I’m Chandra,” she replied, “and I’m gonna do  _ Incendio.” _

Jace blinked. It didn’t seem like this was up for discussion. “Okay, that’s fine,” he said.

Professor Flitwick was passing out bundles of twigs in shallow bowls. “Begin!” he squeaked.

“ _ Incendio! _ ” said Chandra. The twigs burst into flames. 

“ _ Aguamenti. _ ” Jace said, dousing them. This was a silly exercise. They were supposed to spend the entire class doing this?

“ _ Incendio!!!”  _ Chandra cried. Before Jace could counter, the twigs were burnt away entirely into ash. “Professor!” she shouted, her hand flying into the air. “I won,” she said as he walked over.

“Well done, Miss Nalaar!” Flitwick said, beaming. “I’ll get you another, and you two can keep at it!”

As he walked away, Jace turned to Chandra. “Should we switch spells?” he asked, already anticipating the answer.

“No.”

“Okay, that’s fine.”

This time, he decided to be proactive, cast right when she did instead of waiting. But she compensated almost immediately.

“ _ Aguamenti. _ ”

“ _ Incendio! Incendio!! INCENDIO!” _ The flames from her wand ignited the twigs, then surged upwards with her second incantation, catching on Jace’s sleeve. With the third incantation, his whole arm was on fire. 

“AAAAAAAGH!” Jace shrieked, jumping to his feet and stumbling backwards. He waved his arm around desperately, hoping that that would somehow put out the fire. Spinning, he looked around the room, panic rising in his chest. Chandra had jumped to her feet and was staring, horrified, with her hands thrown up onto her head. “ _ HELP!”  _ he screamed. His vision was blurring, but he saw several people leap up from their seats. He tripped on something-- a chair leg, maybe-- and fell to the floor, landing on his back. All the wind was knocked out of him. As he tried to draw in breath to scream again, the fire went out. Professor Flitwick was standing over him, eyebrows knitting together. He pulled Jace into a sitting position and pulled up his sleeve.

“Oh dear, Mister Beleren, I think you had better go to the hospital wing. Miss Nalaar,” he turned towards Chandra, who looked terrified, her eyes wide. “Won’t you walk him there, please.” Chandra blinked. 

“O-okay, professor,” she said. She offered her hand to Jace, and helped him to his feet. 

They walked into the hall as Flitwick reassured their classmates, “Everything is fine, students. Carry on!”

Everything wasn’t fine. Jace looked at his arm through the gaping hole in his sleeve. The skin was singed, and it stung. He poked it with a finger and winced. Grimacing, he turned to Chandra.

As soon as he looked at her, she threw her hands into the air. “I’m sorry!” she yelled, “It was an accident, I got excited, I--”

“It’s fine!” he interrupted, surprised at her level of panic. “Just please stop yelling.”

Chandra put her head in her hands. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Let’s go.” She started walking towards the hospital wing, still pressing her hands against her head. 

“Uh,” Jace began, as they walked, “how did you cast such a powerful charm? We only learned it two days ago.” He was genuinely curious.

She put her hands down. “I practiced.” she said. “I’ve been practicing since last week.” That surprised Jace. He certainly hadn’t pegged Chandra as the type of person to study ahead. He frowned. Why had he thought that? Was it because she was a Gryffindor? He really didn’t know very much about her. He looked back at her. She was walking stiffly with her hands balled into fists, staring straight ahead. He wanted her to relax, but he had no idea what to say. He looked straight ahead too.

At the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey clicked her tongue and applied some milky white paste liberally to Jace’s arm. “You’ll be perfectly fine in a few hours,” she said as she wrapped a bandage over the burn. “Do be careful.” She hurried them out of the wing, seemingly very busy, although there didn’t appear to be anyone else there.

Chandra turned down the hall back towards the Charms classroom. “Wait,” Jace said.

“Huh?”

“Can we… stop at Ravenclaw Tower so I can change robes?” He held up the sleeve with the huge hole in it. Chandra turned red.

“Yeah! Ok. Uh, lead the way.”

Jace set off in the opposite direction. Chandra followed.

They reached the door to the Ravenclaw common room. The bronze eagle on the door opened its beak. “No legs have I to dance, no lungs have I to breathe, no life have I to live or die, and yet I do all three. What am I?” It asked. Jace paused. He didn’t know. He hoped this wouldn’t take a long time to reason out; they needed to get back to class…

“A fire,” said Chandra.

“Well done,” said the bronze eagle cheerfully, and the door swung open.

Jace went into the common room. Noticing Chandra wasn’t with him, he turned around. She was standing out in the hall. “Well, come into the common room,” he said.

“But I’m not a Ravenclaw,” she said uncertainly.

“Well I’m not going to just make you stand out in the hall,” he said, “just come in and sit down while I go to my room and change.” 

She stepped into the room. 

“Ok, now wait here.” He hurried up the stairs to the boys’ dormitory. He tried to change quickly but the fabric of his robes tugged against the burn and he drew in breath sharply, wincing. He was going to have to go slower. 

He pulled his sleeve down gingerly over the bandage as rounded the corner into the common room. Chandra was still just standing there, by the door. He wanted to ask her why she hadn’t sat down, but decided against it. “Let’s go,” he said. 

They went out into the hall. As they began to descend the stairs, he asked, “Had you heard that riddle before?”

“No,” she replied. Jace couldn’t believe it. He tried to hide his surprised expression, but she saw it. “Impressed?” she asked. 

“Yeah,” he said, and it was the truth. 

As they neared the floor where the Charms classroom could be found, a thought occurred to him.

“Hey,” he said, “do you want to skip the rest of class? I’m sure we wouldn’t get in trouble.”

Now it was Chandra’s turn to be surprised. “You want to  _ skip class? _ ”

Jace shrugged, “I don’t think we’d get in trouble.”

Chandra straightened her shoulders. “Okay,” she smiled.

They walked out the front door into the grounds. In the distance they could see a Care of Magical Creatures class being held. The day was sunny, with no clouds in sight.


	2. The Restricted Section

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jace enlists Chandra's help to sneak into the library at night.

_ Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, 10:00 am _

Jace was deep in thought as he packed up his books. They had just begun to learn about Legilimency and Occlumency, the arts of looking into someone’s mind, and of resisting that, respectively. Legilimency was incredibly fascinating, and he wanted to know more about it, but Professor Teferi had told them they would be focusing primarily on Occlumency, as this was Defense Against the Dark Arts class, not Dark Arts class. And they certainly wouldn’t be  _ learning _ Legilimency --not that he wanted to, of course-- whereas they  _ would _ be doing some Occlumency practice.

As they left the room, Ral gave a disgusted grunt. “Can you believe there are people who would  _ do _ that? Just open up someone’s mind and look inside? Poke around invading their brain, their privacy, looking at their secret thoughts… it’s disgusting, don’t you think?”

Jace blinked, bringing himself out of his bubble of thought. “Oh, definitely,” he said, “totally unbelievable.”

 

_ Hogwarts Library, 8:00 pm _

It was a few days later when Jace was finally able to shake off Ral and look for books about Legilimency in the library. He didn’t  _ have _ to hide it, of course, after all he only wanted to know some more about it, but he still had the feeling Ral wouldn’t like it. They did all their homework together, so it was hard to find a reason to come to the library without his friend, but saying he wanted to study for a test that was three weeks away had done the trick. Ral had looked at Jace like he had lost his mind when he suggested it, then Jace had left on his own.

He had been at the library for quite some time, combing the shelves, when he finally found a section about mind magic. He hadn’t wanted to ask the librarian, Madam Pince, for help, since he was afraid she would want to know why he was looking this up, and he had had no idea where to look, so he had decided to just look...everywhere.

There were only 8 books that seemed like they would contain the information he wanted, so he sat on the floor and began to skim each of them in turn.

The lights went off. He looked up, startled, then down at his watch. It was curfew. He looked with dismay at the books he had left to examine. None of the ones he had already finished had had what he was looking for. And he wasn’t sure his excuse to Ral would work a second time. He nervously looked around, and lifted his wand.

“ _ Lumos _ ,” he whispered, and continued reading.

 

Supremely disappointed, Jace stood up and stretched, wincing as his back cracked. None of the books had told him what he wanted to know. Only two of them had gone further in depth than Professor Teferi had in class, and then only barely. He yawned and quietly shelved all the books. He turned and tiptoed towards the door of the library. As gently as possible, he placed his hand on the huge brass handle and pulled. Locked. Fantastic. He walked slowly toward the back of the library.  _ I guess I’ll have to stay here the whole night.  _ His stomach gave an unpleasant lurch. The excuse he gave Ral would never hold up now. He would want to know what could possibly have kept Jace in the library “studying” for so long. 

Jace sighed and looked around. He would need a place to hide when Madam Pince came in to unlock the library in the morning. It would probably be unwise to go to sleep… 

He reached the bars that blocked off the Restricted Section from the rest of the library.

_ The Restricted Section. Of COURSE!  _ The Restricted Section would surely have books on Legilimency. He eagerly grabbed the handle and tried to turn it. It, too, was locked. 

Cursing under his breath, he walked back to the front of the library. Just as he was choosing a table to hide under, he heard a voice in the hall. 

“ _ Alohomora,”  _ it said. Panicking, Jace dove under a table, slamming his forehead into its side. Somehow, the impact made almost no noise, but it was all he could do to not cry out, or even whimper in pain. 

He watched a pair of feet walk around the study area, a faint light shining from somewhere above them. A prefect on patrol, most likely. As the sound of the footsteps faded into the back of the library, Jace scrambled out from under the table and made a break for the door, wrenching it open and, at the last moment, stopping himself from letting it slam shut. He took off down the hall as fast as he could without making a sound. He had been stupid not to think of  _ alohomora  _ himself. He knew that spell! Well, it was late. He was tired. And disappointed not to have found anything out about Legilimency. But a flicker of hope lit up his face.  _ The Restricted Section.  _ He would have to get in there somehow. The proper channel to do so would be to get a note from Professor Teferi. But that would be nearly impossible to do without Ral noticing. And… he wasn’t sure how he would explain to Teferi why he wanted to read those books. ‘ _ I have a purely academic interest in Legilimency _ ’ felt like a feeble excuse. 

He would have to sneak in.

 

_ Great Hall, 12pm _

Jace tapped his fingers on the table, staring into space as his lunch got cold. To sneak into the Restricted Section he would need a plan. There was no way to sneak in during the day-- there were too many people around. And while getting caught out of bed past curfew was certainly bad, getting caught out of  _ bounds  _ at the same time would land him… some terrible punishment, surely. He would need to be cautious, silent, and prepared for the worst. He knew he would get engrossed in his reading. To account for that, he would need… a lookout! But who? There was no way he could ask Ral. Ral would be disgusted with him for wanting to learn more about Legilimency. He couldn’t ask Gideon-- Gideon was a prefect and wouldn’t be willing to break so many rules at once. Who else could he ask?

As if in answer to his question, an explosion of laughter from across the room drew his eyes to the Gryffindor table. Chandra Nalaar. She was sitting beside Gideon, who had clearly just told a really good joke, or something.

Chandra would be perfect. He knew her well enough to ask a favor. She would have no qualms about breaking the rules. And she wouldn’t care about the subject matter he was reading. Now he just had to get her alone to ask her…

 

_ By the lake, Saturday 1pm _

It had taken him until the weekend, but he had finally found Chandra alone. He couldn’t ask her after any of the classes they had together, because Ral was there. He had been asleep when Jace arrived back from “studying” and likely had no idea how late he had been at the library, but Jace was taking great care to not make him suspicious.

Chandra was sitting by the lake with Kiora, a girl Jace did  _ not  _ get along with. He was about to slink away in disappointment when Kiora stood up, stretched, and said goodbye. She walked past Jace on her way into the school, and gave him a disgusted look on her way by. He bristled, but said nothing.

Chandra was laying on her back, gazing at the clouds. The distant sounds of quidditch practice carried across the lake, but it was otherwise quiet. He cleared his throat.

“Hm?” Chandra propped herself up on one arm and twisted her head around. A puzzled look flickered across her face. “Jace? What do  _ you _ want? Uh, I mean… what’s up?”

“Well, Chandra,” he said, clasping his hands together, “I uh, need your help with something.”

Her confused look deepened. “Yeah? What is it?”

He took a deep breath. “I want to sneak into the restricted section of the library, and I need someone to… to keep a lookout.” 

Chandra stared at him. “Why do you want to break into the restricted section?”

He had prepared himself for that. “I want to look something up.”

She cocked her head to one side, and looked at him for a long moment. “Okay then,” she said, “So what’s the plan?”

He blinked. He had been expecting to have to dodge a few more questions. Shaking aside his bewilderment, he sat down on the grass beside her. “All right,” he said, “here’s what I was thinking…”

 

_ Gryffindor Tower, 10:30pm (later that week) _

Chandra stepped out of the common room and closed the portrait hole gently behind her. The Fat Lady was asleep. She’d have to wake her when she got back. Damn. But at least she wouldn’t ask her questions now about where she was going.

She was to meet Jace behind a painting in the fourth floor hallway outside the library that concealed a secret passageway. From there they would wait to slip past the prefect patrols.

She crept quietly down three flights of stairs, edging along with her hip pressed into the banister. She didn’t dare use a light in the grand staircase. 

When Chandra reached the fourth floor, she switched gears, moving swiftly from the staircase into the open doorway of the charms classroom. She paused, listening for footsteps. Silence. Poking her head out of the door into the dark hallway, she looked around. Nothing. She stepped out of the classroom and strode down the hall, trailing two fingers along the wall for guidance. When they touched the ornate frame of the picture that concealed the passageway, she hooked them around it and pulled. The painting swung forward.

“ _ You’re late, _ ” Jace’s voice hissed at her. She glared at him, even though he wouldn’t be able to see it in the dark.

“ _ Sorry  _ I was being  _ cautious  _ so I wouldn’t get  _ caught.  _ I thought that was what you  _ wanted, _ ” she snarled back, and stepped into the hidden passage. He gave an irritated huff and pulled the painting back into place.

They waited in silence for the next prefect patrol to pass the library. Jace had thought it would be too risky to ask around about the patrol schedule, so the plan was to sneak into the library immediately after it was checked. Jace had his ear pressed to the back of the portrait, but Chandra just leaned lazily against the wall, waiting.

Jace tensed up. Chandra immediately stood up straight and drew her wand, a thrill rushing through her, but he waved her down. Her arm dropped to her side and she scowled at him. A minute or two later, he whispered, “Okay, the coast is clear. Let’s go.  _ Quietly _ .”

“ _ Duh, _ ” Chandra snarled. He winced at the volume of her voice. 

Mollified by his reaction, she stood on tiptoe to peer out of the passageway over his head as he opened the portrait hole a crack. There was nothing to see; the hall was shrouded in total darkness. Perfect. Jace stepped out and walked briskly toward the library doors. Somehow his feet made no noise on the flagged stone floor. Chandra followed, keeping her footsteps light. When they reached the door, they both pressed their backs against it and looked back down the hall. Nothing. Good. Jace turned to the lock beside the huge brass handle and whispered, “ _ Alohomora. _ ” The lock clicked open, and the sound, though not loud, was enough to make him jump a mile. He looked over his shoulder with a panicked expression on his face. Chandra suppressed the urge to snicker.

Taking a deep breath, Jace pulled open the door. Its hinges, thankfully, didn’t squeak, although Chandra knew it would have been surprising if they did. Most likely they were polished and oiled practically every day by the school’s house elves. Jace took one more look behind them, and slipped into the library. Chandra followed, and eased the door shut.

 

“ _ Alohomora, _ ” Jace whispered, and the lock on the restricted section’s gate clicked open. He slipped inside, Chandra right behind him. She closed the gate slowly, and raised her wand.

“ _ Lumos. _ ”

In the light from her wand, he could see her face clearly for the first time all night. The light didn’t flicker at all. Huh. So  _ incendio  _ wasn’t the only charm she was good at.

“Do you want me to wait here by the gate, or stay close to you?” Chandra whispered.

“I need you to be near me so I can see you signal if someone’s coming,” he replied.

“Oh,” she said, “right. Of course. Duh.”

He turned away and led her up the first aisle of books.

Jace knew what he was looking for. The library had a catalog of the books that could be found in the restricted section, so that students could decide on a specific title to ask a professor for a permission slip to read. He had been careful not to be seen looking at it, of course. There were a few titles that seemed worth looking at, he just didn’t know exactly where they might be…

 

Chandra followed Jace through rows and rows of shelves, wand held aloft. He stopped abruptly. She walked right into him. “ _ Watch it! _ ” he snarled, barely above a whisper.

“Well don’t just  _ stop when I’m right behind you, Jace! _ ” she snapped.

Ignoring her, he said, “I found what I’m looking for. Go wait at the end of the aisle where you can see the door, and signal me if you see someone coming.”

“Fine,” she said, and stalked down the row of books to the end. She sat down on the floor and scooted over until she could see the gate.

“ _ And put out your wand! _ ” Jace hissed from the other side of the row. She made a face at him.

“ _ Nox, _ ” she said, and her light went out. As it did, Jace lit his own wand, and reached for a book. Chandra watched him open it onto his lap, and begin to flip through it with an intense, focused expression. Turning away from his flickering wandlight, she looked towards the door.

 

Jace pored over the pages of a book entitled  _ Mind Sculpting _ . It was exactly what he had been hoping to find. It included several chapters of background on magic of the mind, and several on the art of legilimency (not that he would ever  _ do  _ such a thing, but he read them anyway, because he just wanted to know about it). Some of the passages were incredibly dense, but the book included everything he had wanted to know. He had never felt so enthralled.

 

Chandra had never felt so bored. Who knew sneaking out in the middle of the night to break into the restricted section of the library would end up being so dull? It felt like she had been sitting there for  _ hours.  _ She had already signaled Jace to douse his wandlight for the passing of a patrol, and that felt like ages ago. Maybe she could find something interesting to read. She squinted at the shelves, but it was too dark to read the titles. Jace would probably yell at her if she lit her wand. Oh well.

“ _ Lumos. _ ” Chandra lifted her wand up beside the shelf closest to her, and managed to read several titles before Jace hissed at her to put out her light. Huffing, she did so and slouched back against the shelf. None of those books had seemed like something she would find interesting anyway.  _ Mindculling, Fact or Fiction, Thoughtsieze _ ... Those all sounded awful. There had to be something she could do to keep herself entertained.

An idea occurred to her. She glanced over at Jace. He was absorbed in his book again. Good. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she held her wand in her right hand, with her body between it and Jace’s line of sight. She wondered if she could cast  _ incendio  _ without saying the incantation aloud. It wasn’t something fourth-years were expected to be able to do, but… she was already good at the charm, so why not try?

_ Incendio,  _ she thought, focusing all her energy on her wand. A small wisp of smoke rose from its tip. She let out the breath she had been holding. So it was possible.  _ Keep trying. _

_ Incendio.  _ A single spark flew out of the tip and fluttered to the floor. Chandra whipped her head around to look at Jace. He hadn’t seen it.  _ Keep trying _ .

_ Incendio.  _ This time a small shower of sparks sprayed out of her wand. She looked over at Jace again. He hadn’t seen. 

_ Incendio.  _ This was getting frustrating. She wasn’t getting anything more than a few sparks each time she tried. Clearly there was a reason they weren’t expected to cast spells nonverbally until sixth year. This was  _ hard.  _ When she said the incantation aloud, she could produce an impressive flame. This was much less satisfying. She pouted.

Just to vent a little of her frustration, before she tried the wordless spell again, she decided to cast it normally. Just once, to get her back in her groove.

“ _ Incendio, _ ” she whispered.

A jet of flame erupted out of her wand tip, shooting away from her towards the bookshelf. The books on it caught fire.

Chandra shrieked and leapt to her feet. Jace, from down the aisle, gave a startled yell and scrambled to his feet, sprinting down to her. He grabbed one of the flaming books off the shelf and attempted to smother it with his robes. But the fire was already spreading down the shelf. Panic rose in Chandra’s chest. She had put the same amount of force behind the incantation as she had been putting behind the nonverbal spell. And now, this.

She and Jace watched, frozen in place, as the orange flames moved across the shelf. And then, a horrible scream pierced the air. Then another, and another.  _ The books were screaming. _

“ _ RUN! _ ” Chandra cried, grabbing Jace by the sleeve and sprinting for the gate. There was nothing to do now except try not to be found out.

Reaching the library door, she released Jace’s robe to yank it open, and he bolted past her.

“ _ Run home! _ ” He yelled, “ _ Don’t look back! _ ” 

But she did. As she sped towards the grand staircase, she looked over her shoulder. They had left the library door hanging open, and an orange glow was just visible through it. She looked straight ahead again. With the rising volume of the books’ wails at her back, she climbed the stairs faster and faster, until she was neck-and-neck with Jace. They reached the sixth floor at the same time, and parted without even looking at each other. Jace ran left, towards Ravenclaw Tower, and Chandra ran right, towards the Fat Lady’s portrait. 

The Fat Lady was gone. The portrait’s frame was empty.  _ Oh, god. _ As she panted from her run up two flights of stairs, Chandra heard footsteps behind her. They were running. Someone was chasing her. 

Panic seized her, and she looked around frantically for somewhere to hide. There was a large (okay, medium-sized) gargoyle on the landing. She dove behind it, and crouched, trying to quiet her breathing.

The footsteps slowed down. Whoever it was had reached the landing. Chandra put her face in her hands.

“Chandra,” said a breathless voice, “is that you?”

Chandra looked up. A Ravenclaw prefect was standing over her.  _ This girl knows my name? I have no idea who she is. Crap.  _

The two of them stared at each other for a minute, both still panting. 

Once the prefect caught her breath, she stood up straight, and said, “You’re out after curfew.”

“I  _ know, _ ” snapped Chandra, and immediately regretted it. There was no way being rude would help.

“And there was a fire in the library,” the prefect added, “am I correct in assuming you are responsible?”

“Would you believe me if I said no?” Chandra said sheepishly.

The prefect gave an appreciative laugh, then drew her face back into a serious expression. “Get up. We’re going to the headmaster’s office. This is incredibly serious, Chandra.”

She got to her feet and followed the prefect to the staircase. She glanced down the hall towards Ravenclaw Tower. She couldn’t see or hear anyone down that way. Did that mean Jace had gotten back to his room without being caught? Well, at least they didn’t  _ both  _ have to get in trouble.

The two girls walked to the stone gargoyles guarding the headmaster’s office. It seemed to take forever. The gravity of what she had done sank down on her.  _ She had set the library on fire.  _ This was so much worse than anything else she had ever done; she had no idea what the magnitude of her punishment would be. Maybe they would take away all of Gryffindor’s house points. Maybe she would be  _ expelled _ . She was shaking with fear by the time they arrived.

“ _ Hedron, _ ” said the prefect. The gargoyles leapt apart, and behind them a spiral staircase began to wind upwards. She gestured for Chandra to step onto it, then followed her. The gargoyles stepped back into place, and the two of them spiraled slowly upwards. Upwards towards Chandra’s doom, or something at least pretty close to it.

 


End file.
